Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech Broken Laptop

So the machine has no RAM?

Have you taken each part out individually and tried to boot seperately? (individually as in, left all the other parts in while testing one thing at a time).

Put a boot disk (a windows or linux disk) in the drive and see what happens, does anything change then?

RAM taken out and its exactly the same....dvd noise still there and not booting up

TheMrs

yes we have done everything individually and have run it with the original start up disc....still the same noise

TheMrs

obviously no noise when dvd drive not there...it just doesnt do anything then

Its only a slight possibility, but the reason I ask is it could be the screen. If it instantly appears already loaded up, there could be a connection fault with the screen that registers a fault with the motherboard which stops it going further (until it makes that slight connection), but if it goes through the normal process, BIOS, loading etc, then I stand by a motherboard fault or associated problem. Either way, its not much help, nor an easy fix. But a screen replacement (if it is that) I would think is cheaper.

The way to test this would be to plug it into an external monitor, see if anything comes up.

But either way, good luck and hope you get it sorted

Thanks a lot rhoobarb. we going to hook it up to the tv and see what happens

nope that didn't work


Hopefully it will be on in the morning and we can run that test


Thanks again... your a helpful lot in here

TheMrs

Does the caps lock light flash 5 times? If it does that's the code for a mainboard failure.

As this model is yet another HP laptop with an inherent GPU problem, i.e. they unsolder themselves from the mainboard due to poor solder and inefficient heat dispersal, this could be the source of the problem.

That it will still boot on occation you might get away with a reflow, a couple of copper shims and some quality thermal paste (e.g. Arctic MX-4).

little-pob your a genius the caps lock does flash five times so that has to be the problem. It was on all night last night and didnt boot up at all so it must have finally died. It was only going to be a spare lappy for us or one the kids can fight over so is it worth paying to get it fixed or just sell it on for spares?

many many thanks again

TheMrs

It's probably at the point where it needs a "reball". This involves removing the GPU from the mainboard, cleaning the contacts of old solder and replacing with a good quality solder (preferably lead based as it has a higher melting point than lead free). This ideally requires the use of a BGA reballing station and the correct stencil, but some people are good enough at soldering to do it by hand.

It should be cheaper than a new mainboard. Though that's not much comfort, as a replacement mainboard can be more expensive than a new laptop!

Motherboard .. and what laptop are you talking about that costs more than a mobo replacement does? Even with labour you're not gonna be hitting the costs for a decent (£400 or so) lappy.

Mainboard and motherboard are synonymous, as are mobo, MB, board, PCB etc. Motherboard is just the more common term.

Though, for what it's worth, I only use the term mainboard for when talking about laptops.
I did say can be, rather than will be.

Provided they can source the part, an independent repairer is likely to be cheaper than a new laptop. Cheaper again, would be to source the board second hand from the likes of ebay and doing the job yourself. However, non-warranty repairs done by the manufacturer are notorious for being overly expensive.